> project specs

[nice is wise] > intro | project | materials | interview |

ZPZ PARTNERS
architects

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michele Zini Architect, is a partner in the architecture, design and research studio ZPZ Partners.  He has been a lecturer at the Politecnico di Milano in the Design Faculty and taught on the Masters course at the Domus Academy from 1995 to 2005. He chairs conferences in Italy and abroad. ZPZ Partners design buildings that are innovative in their concept, form and environmental sustainability, getting involved in everything from meta-design to site management.  As well as architecture (schools, hospitals, shops and residential buildings), they handle interior design, furnishings, coordinated image, vision design and trade fairs.  In their research, they have partnered Domus Academy Research and Consulting and Reggio Children. Their work can be seen in Italy and abroad: Tokyo, London, Moscow and Seoul. Full information on www.zpzpartners.it

Modena, 16 November 2008
Where did that highly original look for CreM Modena come from?
“The first thing we asked ourselves was what face we wanted to give new technology.” Architect Michele Zini tells Anna Ferri: “The client probably expected something quite mechanical looking, in the style of Chaplin’s Modern Times, but we gave it more the look of an i-pod.  One of the distinctive traits of our design is to give technology a contemporary image.”
And so, a new “skin”...
“We got the idea thinking about what goes on inside”, continues Zini, “and a friend, Alessandro Sarti, who works on tissue morphogenesis, gave us this formula that we then put into a program and hey presto, – the building’s new skin.”

But surely it’s not just all about look?
“We worked together on a project that does not use traditional systems which involve no dialogue between the container and the contents,” add Mattia Parmiggiani and Claudia Zoboli, “The façade shows what is within; it becomes a continuous flow that necessarily changes the architecture.   The container now tells us what is happening inside.”
[Source: A. Ferri, Cronaca di Modena, 16 November 2008, Scienza e Architettura, La nascita del centro “Stefano Ferrari” raccontato dai sui ideatori, La medicina rigenerativa diventa arte;
http://linformazione.e-tv.it/archivio/20081116/12_MO1611.pdf]

Modena, 27 October 2008
There were no precedents for the Regenerative Medicine Centre, so it had to be conceived as something highly experimental...
“The design had to allow for technical factors, some extremely heavy constraints, and the architects tell us that even in the construction phase, changes had to be made for technical reasons, so the structural form had to demonstrate a certain flexibility. (...)The mottled skin that envelops the CReM building is in empathy with the work going on within its walls, but it also provides the solution to the need for the building to be flexible and adaptable, in that the basic framework can equally well house a window, a grille or a blind panel.”
As for the interiors...
“The interior is schizophrenic.” Comments Zini. “On two levels, the style is somewhat submarine.  A labyrinth with enormous white and beige spaces, providing some 1500 square metres of sterile space: no other building has so many sterile rooms.”
source: www.cmr.unimore.it/on-line/Home/architettura.html